design + diy

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After recently moving into a new condo, I was bitten by the demo/diy/renovation bug. The condo is in an absolutely enviable location and comes equipped with plenty of space, natural lighting, and counter space. The single issue I had was the 1980s honey oak cabinets. Not only were they dated (not in that charming, but-they’re-kind-of-in-right-now way), but they sat extremely low on the kitchen walls and created a claustrophobic feel in the already narrow galley kitchen. We decided to brighten it up by ripping out one set of cabinets, painting the remaining cabinets white, the walls grey, and adding grey backsplash. The result:

Cabinets

Luckily, we were gifted a cabinet refinishing kit for Christmas and it seemed to work very well for our project. We chose ‘pure white’ for the final color and had it mixed with the provided ‘base coat’ solution at the home improvement store. While we knew this was an undertaking, we weren’t quite expecting the project to take as long as it did. We used the provided deglosser to start off, but ended up sanding to ensure an even, raw base. Three coats of white base and one protective top coat later, we had a gleaming white kitchen. I will say this about the kit: the top coat dries a little dingy, and any dried drips will peel the entire white coat right off. I see a top coat touch up in our near future.

Naturally, the day we chose to hit the improvement store for supplies was [insert big expensive brand here] shelf stock day, and they took advantage of our half open mouths and unknowing stares as we tried to pick mastic, grout, sealer, caulk, and tools. We were told not to use spacers as subway tile comes with space notches–but listen, I researched. I knew what I wanted and I definitely wanted an 1/8″ grout line. Soo bye dude I’m getting these. Then another guy tried to sell us premixed grout that “included sealer.” It was over $50 – nuh bruh. We got two quarts of non-sanded premixed grout in bright white, a tub of the cheaper mastic that covered well over 35 square feet, two sponges, and two bags of 1/8″ spacers.

A Lesson on Grout

While friends, relatives, bloggers, and home improvement stores all suggested applying grout with a joint knife and grout float, we opted out of the float and quickly realized the joint knife just didn’t work. So naturally, as children in grown bodies do, we used our hands. Worked like a charm. I ran out of gloves, which had to be thrown away each time I wiped the tiles down, so I ended up bare handed. It really cleaned out my nails and exfoliated my hands. I now realize that this was an unwise choice as grout dries out the skin and definitely doesn’t come off for a couple of days.

I think it came out pretty acceptable.

DIY Farmhouse Open Shelves

Next up was the giant open space where the old cabinets once were. We had an idea of open shelving to tie in the cabinets and utilize as much vertical space as possible. I wanted to place the shelves at cabinet level to keep the lines consistent throughout the kitchen, so I needed to find brackets that would allow that without drilling into our precious new tile. I have a long history with Ikea shelving and thought those would be just the ticket. However, I found that Ikea shelves are only produced in two sizes–too big for my wall and too small for my wall. I scoured the webs and came across Colleen’s idea for utilizing the exact Ikea brackets that I had my eye on. Taking cues from her experience, I went to the home improvement store and selected a single cedar pressure treated plank at 12′ x 6″ x 1″ in hopes that two pieces would fit into the depth of the 11″ bracket.

Turns out two 6″ deep pieces did fit into the depth of the bracket, yet the 1″ height left lots of room. So I, ever headstrong, forged ahead despite the issue and hoped for the best. After staining the boards with Minwax Wood Stain in Jacobean and painting the chrome brackets black, we put the the first bracket up and slid the two boards, side by side, into the other bracket to ensure fit. It fit!

I couldn’t contain my excitement and immediately gathered a few things I already had in the kitchen, including my latest $3 Salvation Army find–an extra tall bronze canister. I added some sauce bowls (they’re actually mixed nut bowls for us) from Target and called it a day. Success!

Next up is a couple pieces of art for the walls to fill that obnoxious height above our cabinets, and then it’s on to some other rooms we want to embellish and finish up.

I don’t know what it is about the winter and the impending holiday season that prompts me to change my phone wallpaper. Quite possibly: watching The Holiday 6+ times in one week, building hot chocolate mix jars for friends and family, or a chilly breeze taking me back to my favorite chapter in Lavyrle Spencer’s Bittersweet (circa 1990). I. don’t. know.

In an attempt to capture some of those moments every time I look at my phone and to indulge my obsession with marble lately (wtf?), I created this one. With a snippet from one of the world’s most favorite Christmas tunes (may your days be merry and bright) and a splash of gilded glory, this is the perfect classy reminder that it’s the holidays. As if I can’t tell just by opening my eyes every morning and looking at, you know, anything. I like it. Download it if ya want.

I tend to make iphone backgrounds once or twice a year to freshen up the seemingly permanent extension of my right arm. I have lots of obligations headed my way this winter and wanted a quick glance at the calendar, so these were born. Download below 🙂

For Father’s Day last weekend, I decided to take the homemade route and craft up a gift for my dad.

I blended up some seasonings to make homemade Season-All, a Carolina-style barbecue rub, and a Kansas-style barbecue rub. I purchased some bacon popcorn and montreal steak seasoning chips from World Market – perfect “dad” snacks. Also found at World Market were little salt shakers and a restaurant style season shaker that I included as an accessory for serious backyard grilling sessions. My finished product came out like this:

As for the water: I thought it’d be a nice change of pace to try and, I don’t know, hydrate. So I went big–and definitely went home by attempting to drink a gallon of water per day. I marked the gallon with the prospective finish times to track my progress. I dubbed it #gallonchallenge.

This is TOUGH. I failed on day one. It causes hyper-frequent bathroom trips, which is slightly irritating. I feel that attempting to drink an entire gallon of water per day is excessive. I’m still attempting to keep it up, though I find that I’m actually just holding onto the same gallon and working through every three days. Epic Fail.